Description

From Cleveland to Cincinnati and everywhere in between, Ohio rocks. Rebels and Underdogs: The Story of Ohio Rock and Roll takes readers behind the scenes to witness the birth and rise of musical legends like the Black Keys, Nine Inch Nails, Devo, the Breeders, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, and many others who got their start in garages and bars across Ohio. Through candid, first-hand interviews, Garin Pirnia captures new stories from national legends like the Black Keys and slow-burn local bands like Wussy from Cincinnati. Discover why Greenhornes' members Patrick Keeler and Brian Olive almost killed each other on stage one night, what happened to the pink guitar Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails gave to band member Richard Patrick, why Devo loved the dissonance when they were booed by 400,000 music lovers in England, and so much more! Entertaining, inspiring, and revolutionary, Rebels and Underdogs is the untold story of the bands, the state, and rock itself.

Author Bio

Garin Pirnia was born and raised in the rock-and-roll city of Dayton, Ohio. She has written about music for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Mental Floss, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Paste Magazine, and many more publications. She is author of The Beer Cheese Book and screenwriter of The Finicky Cat, a short horror comedy that has won awards at film festivals and screenplay contests. Music, beer cheese, and cats—she does it all.

Reviews

“Jerry Casale (DEVO) probably sums it up best in this book: 'In Ohio, nobody gave a shit.' But around that inversely proud axiom, Garin Pirnia gives it a fine archaeologist’s try to plop meat all over the bones of one of rock'n'roll’s unsung if inarguably most important locales, just as the genre is looking like a skeleton of its former fame.”
— Eric Davidson, singer in New Bomb Turks and author of We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut

“Ohio’s rock 'n' roll has always sounded like it was made by teenagers stranded in the wasteland, obsessing about music they’d never actually heard, then trying to make it themselves, which is why the best bands—Devo, Afghan Whigs, Guided by Voices, Nine Inch Nails—are so hard to pin down. But Garin Pirnia has done just that in this exceptional book, an account satisfyingly comprehensive, but driven by the instincts and ardor of a true devotee.”
— David Giffels, author of 'Furnishing Eternity' and coauthor of 'Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!'